Bird of Paradise is being released by Kino on DVD ($24.95) and Blu-ray ($29.95) on May 1, 2012.
As with Kino's other recent releases of films from the Selznick Studio now in the public domain (Nothing Sacred, A Star is Born, A Farewell to Arms), this is an authorized edition struck from the original negative owned by the Selznick estate. Previous DVDs have all used p.d. prints of relatively poor quality. The Kino discs contain no extras.
thank you for the update!
kim
www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/186977/TCM-Fanatic-TCM-Original-Kim-Punkrock
Glad you found it!
shareThanks Hobnob! Bought a PD years ago. Glad a good company like KINO is re-releasing it. And having no extras won't matter as long as it is a good print (and with KINO's history, we are likely to see that).
shareHey, Big-G! Yes, Kino seems to be raiding the Selznick vaults at a fast pace. It's pretty amazing that this and the other films announced or already released have never been given a proper DVD release until now.
shareThanks a lot hobnob53 !
I'm very excited about this news! This is one of my favorite Vidor films. I've always felt this film is unjustly underrated. CAN'T WAIT!
"I believe that perfection handicaps cinema." --Jean Renoirshare
You're welcome, klasekfilmfan. It's also great that this will finally be a good print, unlike most of the public domain stuff out there.
shareGot it last week, but did not have a chance to see it until this past weekend.
While this print is not the cleanest (one can easily spot white specs every now and then), it is still a thousand times better than any PD version. There are no more issues with faded looks as the blacks and whites are much more striking.
In watching this and TARZAN AND HIS MATE, I always ask myself what if there was never any Hayes Code? It might be a good bet that we would have continued to see scantily dressed women (like Dolores Del Rio in this film) during those decades, though I’d imagine someone like Jane Russell would have objected to that, while someone like say Joan Crawford (as seen in THE UNKNOWN), probably would not have minded. As it is, it was films like BIRD OF PARADISE that help give rise to the code.
What?! You mean to say the Kino disc is better than Alpha Video's? Have you no taste?
Oh, yeah, I guess you do.
Thanks for the update, Big G. I haven't ordered mine but plan to do so soon, along with a couple of other of Kino's Selznick releases.
Yes, stuff like this, Tarzan and his Mate, The Sign of the Cross and the various films featuring topless women in the silent era (such as the 1926 Ben-Hur), finally compelled the Hays Office to become more draconian and save us from ourselves and our own lusts.
I agree, Jane Russell would only have gone so far, which might have meant that Howard Hughes would have to have invented new ways to expose her cleavage anyway, but I guarantee that Crawford would have had no such qualms (even past 50!), and neither would Marilyn Monroe, for one, who often lamented near the end of her life that she knew nudity in films was coming, but that by the time it did she'd be in her 40s -- gasp! -- which MM said would be "too late for me." Times have changed.
On this new DVD, when I saw the opening credits, they did not look very sharp, and that brought up initial concerns that maybe Kino pulled a fast one on me, thinking perhaps that they just got the same old PD version and slapped their name on the cover. But those concerns quickly faded as the rest of the picture looked much better (though don't expect it to be as sharp as say KING KONG).
And you are right that Howard Hughes would have done something different on Jane Russell. Of course, I believe Jane herself objected to what Howard was doing in the first place. As it is, because of the code, it actually makes movies like BIRD OF PARADISE more interesting and gives us a fascinating look at a piece of Hollywood history.